An Umbrae Rant #1

Join practiced Canadian tarot readers to learn the meanings of the cards. Here we will discuss the underlying symbolism and subtle nuances found in the card images. We will disscus how the different cards differ from each other and indeed work together.

I have started a separate forum topic for each individual card in the 22 majors, and in each of the four suits: Cups, Swords, Wands and Pentacles, to help you practice and learn Tarot, to understand your cards so they become as important a life tool for you as they are for me.
Umbrae
Posts: 22
Joined: Tue Apr 21, 2020 10:21 pm
Location: Lower right coast USA

An Umbrae Rant #1

Post by Umbrae »

“When we realize that being a tarot reader doesn't make us special or set us apart from others, we become better readers.”

Over the years, I’ve noted a couple things regarding this, both in social media, and the real world.

First off, some folks develop (early on), an “I have a deck of cards and I’m not afraid to use them” attitude, where projection takes precedence over truth.
“My teacher told me…” “The cards told me…” “My spirit guides told me…” “I’m an intuitive/empath…” become excuses for anti-social behavior that would never fly in the real world.

It’s also common to see newb’s with a couple weeks of card-flipping ‘want to start earning the big-bucks’ without realizing the onus that comes with reading for others.

There’s another mysterious thing that occurs – inflating how long one has been ‘reading and studying’ the cards. It is instantly recognizable to those of us who have spent decades learning and studying. If you don’t get the very basics of the language of the symbols – don’t tell me how many decades you’ve spent with the cards. There are a couple books out there where the author brags about spending decades with the cards, only to reveal they’ve never even looked at or studied the cards in question.

Why do these behaviors occur? Because now that they’ve got cards in their hands, they feel special. They have secret knowledge. Their ego inflates beyond all reason, and they feel they can judge others – whom they know nothing about. This behavior is not specific to areas of divination. I noted the same thing back in my days in the stock-market. "I have real-time charting, therefor I'm smarter than the street!" Huge losses, follow huge egos.

IF you’ve ever been involved with a 12-Step program, you’ll hear folks talk about “The Committee”. The ‘voices in our heads’ that tell us to ‘go ahead, have a drink (smoke a joint, snort some coke, shoot up, eat that cake, bet on the losing hand), because you deserve it’. New card readers are never warned about “The Committee”.

New readers are seldom warned about ‘the onuses’ of reading for others. So they use imagination to inflate their knowledge base, disregard advice, justify ‘the committee’, and head out to be ‘professional readers’.

Over time, a couple things inevitably occur. They burn out, or the ‘fuse box shorts out’ and the reader ends up requiring professional mental health help, or will find themselves unable to ever read the cards again.

So if you want to be a better reader, give yourself and others a break. Your ‘teacher’ may have been wrong (and may not have been reading as long as they say). Your guides may simply be “The Committee”, and therefor – fallible and unsound.

User avatar
Demon Goddess
Site Admin
Posts: 94
Joined: Sat Mar 28, 2020 8:07 pm
Location: Montreal, Canada
Contact:

Re: An Umbrae Rant #1

Post by Demon Goddess »

I confess, I use the words, Melody says, or the cards say... often

But, then I channel a giant golden dragon, and she talks a lot and most clearly, through my cards.

So I am biased over the use of the words.

But, my dragon also says that the cards are just flimsy little pieces of paper and pretty card stock and that any magick or knowlege that I might glean, comes from me. So she pushes me to do THIS, which is to look at the cards, see what I see, practice, learn to see more, and use the cards a tool to focus my own connection with myself.

Hence the importance to me of practicing all the little subtleties that are in the symbology of the tarot cards.

This is all YOUR fault, you know? If it weren't for the shit you taught me on the purple pages, and all the others with their "my spirit guides say", I might not even have a dragon.
In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move. - Douglas Adams

Diana
Posts: 13
Joined: Sun May 03, 2020 4:49 pm

Re: An Umbrae Rant #1

Post by Diana »

Great post Umbrae (god it's good to call you Umbrae again!!)

And Demon Goddess, that's great that you channel a giant golden dragon. An act of grace if ever there was any. Is he/she of the race of giants, or just oversized? Did you know that La Force (Strength) in the Tarot of Marseilles is most likely of the race of giants? She has 6 toes. Maybe your dragon could tell us if this is true that she's a giant and therefore the offspring of fallen angels and the daughters of the earth.

I don't think though that one can blame the newbies so much. They don't know any better. They go onto the internet, they go to youtube and facebook and they hear all the things you're ranting about. They're encourage by the ignorant crowd. They don't even know that they're in with an ignorant crowd. What is bothersome though is that it's not all newbies!! That's scary. When however, it is kindly pointed out to them that perhaps they should do some studying - that the Tarot is a book - they sort of stare at you blankly. Maybe they've never read a proper book in their life, let alone the Tarot. And then the "oldies" support them and say "you don't have to study the Tarot. Let you intuition do the work with the help of your guides". Stuff like that. Gibberish. It's not for nothing that I ended up by telling people on Aeclectic that I was sick of throwing pearls to swine and then got banned for it. (Although it's really not cool to ban someone for quoting Jesus.)

When I was growing up in apartheid South Africa, I was about the only white kid at school who hated apartheid. I'd get into huge fights with my school pals and teachers when they made racist remarks. My mum heard about this and told me "I don't care if you yell at the teachers, but your school pals.... it's not their fault. They weren't born racist, they were taught to be so. So instead of getting angry with them... teach them". I did my best and a couple of kids came over to my side eventually. To the great disgust of their parents - one mother of whom phoned my mother to complain that "Diana is putting funny ideas into my daughter's head". I'm still trying to teach the Tarot to newbies - and to tell them not to accept my words at face value, but go and figure out for themselves if what I say sounds valid, but to little avail. People want to be spoonfed. Like babies.

I belong to two facebook TdM groups. One in French one in English. The French one is useless. The English one a little better but barely. But just yesterday, someone in one of them said that the pictures and symbols on the TdM are unimportant. Because Enriquez says so. Well, I like Enriquez but I think people haven't quite grasped what he's doing with the TdM.

Someone asked for an interpretation of a reading. So everyone was gasping and admiring the beautiful Sun. The reading clearly showed that the Sun was in a very bad position! I said that The Sun can be a very dangerous card in the TdM, perhaps the most dangerous due to its deceptive nature, that they musn't confuse it with the happy RWS card. I gave reasons and explanations. Lots of them. It wasn't just a statement thrown out there without justifications. I even mentioned the fact that the one of the boys, if not both, are blind. This didn't interest anyone. The answer I got, and no-one reacted or found this odd was "well I just saw a video on youtube where the guy says the Sun is almost always a positive and happy card". I waited hoping that they'd give their analysis. But no. The guy on youtube seemed to be sufficient evidence that the Sun is a BEAUTIFUL card. Yeah, well I saw a guy on youtube yesterday saying that covid-19 is a biochemical weapon unleashed by the Chinese in order to take over the world and that it has something to do with 5G, but I zoned out when he got to that part.

Kris Hadar who has long ago closed down his school seems to have abandoned the Tarot. I was wondering why. I thought even maybe he had died, because our correspondence at the time was interrupted by his falling ill. No more website, no more books, no more online presence. But it seems he's alive and kicking. I saw him quite by accident a few months ago on youtube being interviewed on a non-tarot topic, but he mentioned in passing something about his old school and his books. He said "I've stopped with the Tarot. No-one is interested in learning anymore." He didn't say they just want a quick lunch, but that was the gist of it.

And all these people who say "intuition is enough". Drives me mad. Also when we know that a lot of our intuition can be ego driven. (Unless we have golden dragons to help us.) And when someone says "I did a reading, lit a candle and asked my spirit guides to help me" I feel like jumping out of the window. Stop the tarot planet... I want to get off, I cry out in vain. I had taken a ten year hiatus from the Tarot. I had really expected that kind of rubbish to have died out. But it hasn't. Although no-one is advised anymore to sleep with the cards under their pillow and wrap them in silk and cleanse them with sage. At one time, that was HUGELY popular and all the rage.
Last edited by Diana on Thu May 07, 2020 6:31 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Diana
Posts: 13
Joined: Sun May 03, 2020 4:49 pm

Re: An Umbrae Rant #1

Post by Diana »

Gosh it's good to rant.

Post Reply